JEFF BRADY: Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com says tapping the reserve should send prices below the current national average of $3.61 a gallon.

PATRICK DEHAAN: The national average has already been moving lower almost every day here for the past five or six weeks or so. That will likely continue. We may see some accelerated drops here in the next week or so.

BRADY: Philip Verleger at the University of Calgary says that's because prices in the middle of the U.S. already are benefiting from extra supply, largely because of Canada's oil sands.

PHILIP VERLEGER: Consumers in the Midwest will not see as much because the price in the Midwest has already been much lower.